I completely agree that insults like this are "pure mud slinging". As I said elsewhere, I know reddit was basically a rage-engine, generating and thriving on rage, but that's not real discussion. That's "engagement" in the most cynical sense. Real engagement is discussion, back and forth, even with (especially with) disagreements.

I just saw a thread where one person's "contribution" was literally nothing other than trying to combine the same 5 words into different insults in response to reasonable comments. There's a difference between ending your evidence-backed reasoned comment with an insult or derogatory remark, and having the entire content of all of your comments be personal attacks or insults.

I'm unsure how I feel about making a rule around such a thing, because the mere presence of insults is not always enough to declare the comment(er) detracting; when the entirety of someone's comment history is just that, then things become more clear-cut.

I don't want an echo chamber. I want to see dissenting opinions. But I want those dissenting opinions to be in good faith, and not backed by aggression. I don't want to see the content of people whose sole intent is to cause outrage and troll.